On July 29, 1905, Dag Hammarskjold, the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish statesman and secretary-general of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961, was born. Following his death on September 18, 1961, his obituary appeared in The Times.

On This Date

Artist Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France, at age 37.

1914

Transcontinental telephone service began with the first phone conversation between New York and San Francisco.

1948

Britain's King George VI opened the Olympic Games in London.

1957

Jack Paar debuted as host of NBC's "Tonight" show.

1958

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

1967

Fire swept the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing 134 servicemen.

1981

Britain's Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

1993

The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible" and threw out his death sentence.

1999

A day trader opened fire in two Atlanta brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 13 before shooting himself to death; he had earlier killed his wife and two children.

2008

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was indicted on seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts he had received from a powerful oil contractor. (A judge later dismissed the case, saying prosecutors had withheld evidence.)

2008

Army scientist Bruce Ivins commited suicide as prosecutors prepared to indict him in the 2001 anthrax attacks.